Chapter 7: First Blood and Covenant
Then, Ian remembered what the organizer's receptionist had told him before entering the game:
"This time, we're making competition a constant throughout. This means players will be locked in fierce competition, even to the point of killing each other, from the moment they arrive. Furthermore, this time, we'll only provide players with extremely limited development resources, requiring them to fight for them at great risk. In reality, a large number of players might not receive a single resource from the auxiliary system at all, and will even be worn down by certain mechanics."
The receptionist's words clearly hinted at the ridiculous difficulty of the main quest! Otherwise, why would they say, "A large number of players won't be able to obtain resources from the system at all?" Ian slapped his forehead.
"If we can't earn points by completing quests, then to avoid being targeted by the assassination mechanics for being at the bottom of the leaderboard, we'll have to hunt other players to earn points?" The thought sent a chill down Ian's spine.
Feeling tremendous pressure bearing down on him, Ian didn't want to waste another second and hurriedly continued scrolling.
He remembered that the mission notification had just sounded twice, meaning the bounty missions had also been updated simultaneously with the official start of the competition.
[Bounty Quest 1: First Blood
Quest Objective: Complete the first kill of a player.
Reward: 3,000 Gold Dragons (2,500 of which are in gold bars), 3 attribute points, 3 skill points, and 2 S-rank NPCs of your choice (in the region).
Note: After completing this quest, notification to other players will be delayed by one day.]
"???" Ian's breath caught at the outrageous reward.
This was what the receptionist had mentioned—"the extremely limited system-provided development resources that require players to take enormous risks to obtain."
With the main storyline almost impossible to complete early on, any player who secured the "First Blood" resource would undoubtedly see their development speed skyrocket.
Not being able to obtain development resources from the system was a significant handicap for players in this kind of competition. Unlike those solo isekai scenarios, where even without any cheat abilities, transmigrators could thrive solely on their knowledge of the source material and modern know-how.
In a 100-player game, all players are intimately familiar with the books. Any player who suddenly appears in a situation where they aren't supposed to be present will be instantly spotted by the other players watching.
Without sufficient strength to back them up, revealing their identity is practically suicide.
For example, every player, when planning, must have considered joining the Targaryen siblings, who are currently experiencing a period of hardship, thinking that by hitching their wagon to Daenerys, they'd be able to ride her coattails for the entire game.
But this is clearly a pipe dream.
With potentially over 50 players out of 100 focused on Daenerys, any player who shows up near her will be instantly exposed.
Unless they're already powerful enough to withstand the other players' attacks, they might not even survive to see her dragons hatch.
And even if a player wanted to risk their life for a chance, they wouldn't have the means.
With their mediocre strength and lack of connections at the start, there's simply no chance of approaching Daenerys.
Why?
In the original timeline, Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy were the only two Westerosi who successfully joined Daenerys in the early and mid-game. Why?
Were they the only two who wanted to? Absolutely not!
When news of Khal Drogo's impending marriage to Daenerys spread, Westeros was flooded with adventurers, sellswords, bastards, and even the younger sons of minor nobles. Like vultures drawn to a carcass, they flocked to the exiled prince, backed by the mighty khal.
But in the novels, none of them appear. Why?
Undoubtedly, the Targaryens' protector, Magister Illyrio of Pentos, turned them away. Perhaps he feared assassins among them, or simply deemed them unreliable. In short, he turned away nearly everyone who sought to join Viserys.
From the beginning to the end, only Jorah Mormont, the former Lord of Bear Island, and Barristan "the Bold" Selmy, the legendary former Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, were introduced to Daenerys—both sent by Illyrio's old friend Varys.
Without a credible identity and valuable skills, seeking to join Daenerys was a fool's errand.
This was also the reason Ian didn't choose Essos as his starting point.
"Wait, that seems a bit off topic?" Ian shook his head, trying to focus his attention on the first blood quest. "I'm getting distracted."
"Continue." The AI's greatest strength was that it always responded to messages instantly, just like a good ChatGPT session.
"First of all, this is a real world, right?"
"Yes."
"So players don't have health bars above their heads, and NPCs don't have names floating over them, right?"
"Yes."
"And the organizers have specially prepared plausible life stories for the players and provided them with relevant knowledge and memories, right?"
"Yes."
"So how the hell do we find other players?" Ian spread his hands. "Let's not even talk about a hundred of us randomly scattered across Westeros or even Essos. That's like throwing a handful of salt into the ocean. Would we even run into each other at the start? Even if we did, who would be able to tell which one was a player?
Sure, I can guess which five classes are popular among players, and other players might be able to guess that too. But that's obviously useless for hunting prey in the early stages.
How many hedge knights are there in all of Westeros? How many wandering sellswords are there? You could probably stay on guard, but hunting them down based on this clue alone is pure fantasy!
Therefore, only after a player has developed to a level that's impossible to ignore will other players notice something's wrong with them, since such a character doesn't exist in the original books. By then, the game is already at least mid-game. This doesn't fit your description of 'players starting out fighting like crazy from the get-go.'
So, what am I missing?"
"I won't answer questions beyond my authority," Annie replied mechanically.
In truth, Ian hadn't expected Annie to answer this question. He was actually asking himself what method the game designers could use to help players find each other.
There were obviously two problems with finding other players: encountering them and identifying them.
Westeros covers over four million square miles, while Essos is several times larger.
Not to mention the scattered player locations, even if 100 players were placed in King's Landing, with a population of 500,000, it wouldn't be easy for them to meet up in a city that large.
Unless the players' movements were further constrained, such as by all confining themselves to the same tavern...
"Holy shit! Allies! Those guys who agreed to form alliances set up specific meeting places!" Ian suddenly exclaimed, slapping his thigh.
Because his own allies had withdrawn, he had completely overlooked the alliance concept.
So, how could players find other players in the early stages?
Normally, they couldn't.
But what if you had already agreed to form an alliance with that player?
(End of Chapter)
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Power Stone or Review!
P@atreon/Soulforger (50+ advanced chapters)
Buy me coffee - ko-fi*com/soulforger01